Timeliness of Immunization and Compliance Assessment Study

Overview

Although coverage for primary childhood immunizations has improved, a significant proportion of young children and pregnant women living in low-resource settings remain inadequately immunized. While young children receive some primary vaccines, many are never fully vaccinated. Progressive decline in immunizations are in large part attributable to poor follow-up and compliance. Major challenges include maintaining immunization records linked to positive identification of the individual child, incentivizing follow-up and return immunizations and efficiently identifying and targeting non-compliant subjects. Mobile-phone costs have decreased dramatically in the developing world with rapid proliferation of web and mobile-phone connectivity. Novel approaches that integrate these modern technologies with existing resources in low and middle income countries can cost-effectively address these challenges. In this proposal, investigators will evaluate a novel software platform, utilizing biometric identification and of subjects, paired with intelligent and subject-aware, mobile-phone reminders and compliance-linked incentives to improve uptake and coverage of primary vaccinations in young children.

A cloud-based, biometric-linked vaccination record, mobile-phone reminder and compliance-linked incentive software platform to provide robust and universal access of vaccinations. The investigators will implement this platform in a low-resource settings with the following features: a) Cloud-based for robust and universal access. b) Biometric-linked for positive identification. c) Digital storage and reporting for transparent view of program operations. d) Global Positioning System (GPS)-linked, allowing rapid assessment of vaccination status of communities. e) Increasing vaccination uptake and coverage by intelligent and subject-aware automated reminders and compliance-linked incentives.